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Seduced By The Night

Robin T. Popp

Published 2006         327 pages

Synopsis

Dr Bethany Stavinoski is a top biochemist.  Working late one night she returns to her lab to find the security guard dead, her laboratory is ransacked and her lab assistant kidnapped.  The police are called and quickly determine that the security has been drained of blood from two small holes in his neck.  The police detective has seen these types of wounds before, they are the work of a “terrorist” group called “the Exsanguinators”, and he calls in a group of experts who are investigating these attacks.

One of the experts is Dirk Adams.  He is an ex- Navy SEAL and he is also a changeling – a vampire human hybrid.  He has the strength of a vampire but can go out in the day and doesn’t have a need for blood.  He is part of a secret group who hunt and kill vampires. 

He recognises that the vampires have attacked the lab for a reason, although he doesn’t know what the reason is, and sets out to protect Bethany from the vampires who seem interested in her and her work.  He has an instant attraction to Bethany but unfortunately she is engaged to be married to another man.

The vampires launch another attack against Bethany and she accepts Dirk’s offer of protection and moves into the fortified mansion that id his home and the vampire hunters group’s headquarters.  Soon Bethany gets an up-close and personal look at the “terrorists” and realizes that they are vampires. 

Dirk explains that vampires exist; they are created when humans are bitten and killed by a mythical creature called a chupacabra.  The chupacabra looks like a gargoyle and it hunts blood by night yet turns into stone by day.  When the chupacabra bites but doesn’t kill is how a changeling is created.

Bethany has few problems believing that vampires exist.  She has seen them for herself.  However Dirk decides not to tell her that he is a changeling.  This will just be one of the many obstacles that the couple will have to overcome in order to be together, the others being Bethany’s fiancé and the small problem of her suddenly being vampire target number 1!

The Review

This is the second book in the Night Slayer series by Robin T. Popp and continues the chupacabra / vampire story from Out Of The Night only this time Dirk is the one fighting vampires and finding romance.

Seduced By The Night is not short of action.  The plot carries the reader along at a satisfying pace and there is plenty of vampire slaying and suspense to keep the pages turning.  Unfortunately whilst the book is very readable it is also somewhat forgettable.  The character development of Bethany and Dirk is a little sparse and this is probably what makes the development of their relationship seem a little dull in places.

I couldn’t understand what Bethany was doing with her fiancé Miles in the first place.  Whilst it wasn’t a love match, he was her friend and she was planning to marry so she must have liked him.  However she breaks off their engagement in a heartbeat without any kind of heartache.  She doesn’t even seem upset when he dies a couple of days later! 

I think this book is an enjoyable read but its just lacks a certain spark, rather annoyingly I can’t put my finger on exactly what it lacks so you’ll have to put up with my somewhat vague description. 

If you are already a firmly established vampire romance fan, I think you would enjoy this book.  It has action, vampires, vampire slaying and romance…what more do you need?  If you are not already converted to the vampire romance genre I don’t think this book will be the one to do it.

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